The Wal-Mart Effect? Exploring the Social Costs of Explosive Organizational Growth

Bruce Rudy ()
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Bruce Rudy: UTSA

Working Papers from College of Business, University of Texas at San Antonio

Abstract: In this working paper, organizational growth is proposed as an antecedent to criminal activity. Combining theory from sociology, economics and ecology, this research argues that as an organization enters and grows within a community, it has the potential to disrupt the relatively stable equilibrium that has developed amongst the existing firms and consumers within the community. As resources become scarce, increased competition for those resources ensues and social disorganization will result which can drive increased criminal activity. Over the longterm, this research predicts that a new stable equilibrium will be reached and criminal activity will decrease. To test this theory, this working paper considers the effects of Wal-Mart store foundings from 1962-2006 on the criminal activity within the counties in which the stores were founded.

Keywords: Social Disorganization Theory; Economic Externalities; Ecological Succession; Criminal Activity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: A14 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 24 pages
Date: 2014
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:tsa:wpaper:0191mgmt

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